Hi,
Milan Zimmermann escribió:
On 2007 April 3 12:27, Bert Freudenberg wrote:
On Apr 3, 2007, at 13:53 , Edgar J. De Cleene wrote:
<<...>>
The final product could have a "programmer mode" (Morphic)?
Actually we do think about this, yes. Our original thinking was to
avoid support issues - if we only expose etoys and not the Smalltalk
browser, we only need to worry about etoys, and not about generic
smalltalk stuff. Besides, the OLPC folks want kids to switch from
Etoys to Python once they are older and we do not want to interfere
with that goal.
How very disappointing .... this is not the first time I understand politics,
not results, are driving the OLPC software future. So instead of "kids first"
we will have "python first". There is of course, absolutely nothing wrong
with competition, but for some to advocate Python to the point that others
feel they need to step back and not do the best their language and
environment can do, and hide it, that is wrong. (Especially without proven
results in python based child education such as eToys have.)
In the 90's I often heard in business "we are a VB shop, so we do not do
(Java, C++, whatever) projects" and I hated it, but to find it in a project
that should be above this, that is sad.
Milan
Yep its very disappointing and sad. I think that Squeak needs to be less
"self contained" and play nicely and more transparently with other
languages/environments, but the idea it to make bridges instead of "this
or that but not both" decisions, at least in place where inclusion makes
sense. I have been using Squeak with my students and going from eToys to
Bots Inc to Smalltalk is a nice path in the learning of informatics and
the use of computers as a media for learning and expressing powerful
ideas (at this point would be nice to thing in bridges between Smalltalk
and other languages, like python). ¿Who are this OLPC folks and why they
decide for us?, I mean, if this project it's for improving education on
"developing nations", we, the people who live in that nations, wouldn't
be the ones who are taking an active part on the decisions instead of
being passive receptors of others silent decisions?
XO machines need to mature with the children as the time goes on, and
continuity is a key factor on that. We need bridges instead of abyss,
inclusion instead of exclusion.
Cheers,
Offray
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